Mr. Ewing Markham was born in 1883 and is of the age of fifty-four
years. He was born near Locust Grove, Oklahoma. He is a halfbreed Cherokee.
His wife is Lucy STARR.

Mr. Markham went to school at Bacone at Muskogee, Oklahoma, and also
at Seminary at Tahlequah.

Mr. Markham tells of an old Indian stomp ground at which a fire was
kept burning all the time. It was a religious belief and was located between
Locust Grove and Murphy. The fire was carried from the Illinois river four
miles east of Tahlequah on horse back. The fire was kept burning all the
time. The ones that lived nearest it kept it burning. They believed if
the fire was allowed to go out that a member of their tribe would die.
Mr. Markham was about fifteen years old at this time.

STRIP PAYMENT

Mr. Markham was nine years old when they had an Indian payment. It
was at the Saline Court House about ten miles east of what is now Locust
Grove. They went in wagons and went prepared to camp until the payment
was finished. It lasted ten days and each Indian drew three hundred and
sixty dollars ($360.00). They paid in cash and not in check. The money
was hauled in a wagon from one payment to another.

CHURCH

Mr. Markham tells of one church located one and one-half miles southwest
of Rose, Oklahoma, by the name of Arcadia Church. They had a preacher who
read from an Indian Bible written in Cherokee and he read a text like our
preachers of today. He was a read man and the tribe believed in him. He
was their counselor, the doctor of their souls and they loved him.

Mrs. Ewing Markham was born in Flint District near what is now Evansville,
Arkansas, on August 31, 1883. Her mother was a fullblood Cherokee Indian
and her name was Martha LOCUST. Mrs. Markham went to school at the Seminary
at Tahlequah.

Emmet STARR, a cousin of Mrs. Markham's, wrote a history of the Cherokee
Indian but died before he finished it.

The following events and places in Mayes County are worthy of mention:Pipe Springs at Locust Grove, battle fought in the Civil War;Hogan Institute, Locust Grove, Presbyterian Mission;Saline Court House;salt licks, Murphy and Salina;Cherokee Orphan Asylum, Salina;Cherokee Strip Payment held at Saline Court House;Choteau, Pryor, pioneer towns;Indian Stomp Ground at George Potatoes near Murphy, Oklahoma, at
which the fire was kept burning until a few years ago;ferries, Riley, Markham and Lewis;McCraken Ford on Grand River, 5 miles east of Choteau;Mounds-Brushy, Round;Roads-Coal Gap Hollow, east of Choteau;Military Fords, Cabin Creek, Pryor Creek and Rock Creek.